CAMDEN, SC (WIS) -
What emerged from the Camden woods just 50 yards from where Mary Mickle sat set off a chain of events that resulted in several calls to 911 throughout the day.
"I'm not lying to you," said one caller. "I was sitting on the porch and he was coming this way and I started screaming."
"I'm staring like, that's a bear, so I looked again and I'm like, that's a bear and I jumped up and I was so nervous," said Mickle "I ran to the door and I looked again, and it was a bear and he rose up and he looked at me and he took off back in the woods."
Mickle was the first to call 911 at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
"He rose up," said Mickle. "He was tall to me, I'm sitting here looking at this bear."
Mickle wasn't alone. A half-hour later, 911 heard from a concerned mother.
"I went up around the next street and didn't see it, so I came back around again and by the time I went around the second time, it was coming through by the fire department," the mother said. "It went through Terminex and the fire department."
"I had my kids with me and they were ecstatic!"
At 9:32 p.m., 911 was startled again.
"It's a bear," said another caller. "It's a freakin' bear here in Camden, South Carolina, ma'am."
Derrick Hickman and his family had only their car to protect them.
"Look at it right there it's crossing the road, it's crossing the road," Hickman said to the dispatcher. "Turn the bright lights on. Oh my God. It's crossing the street now."
The Hickman family watched its approach.
"Oh it's climbing the tree, it's in the tree," Hickman said.
Hours later it was over, to the relief of all of those who called.
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